Chapter 35 LIES.
\~~~ RAINA.
“Where is it that we are going exactly?” I asked Luciano for the umpteenth time after the car deviated from the usual route back home.
“Listen, yeah,” I sat upright, turning to look at him.
“I have a very important presentation tomorrow. I’d rather spend the rest of my day planning and thinking of what to say, instead of taking a tour around…”
“Can you shut up for a minute? You haven’t stopped talking for almost twenty minutes,” Luciano finally breathed out, hissing as he tore his gaze off the screen in front of him.
“Whoa, excuse me! I talk too much? Listen to yourself please, just an hour before I officially close for the day, you come over to drag me away, and to where? I don’t know! “Maybe if you just asked me what I really want to do instead of making me an executive at your company, maybe…”
“Talia.”
The name left his mouth like a warning, low and sharp.
But I was already in the middle of my rant, breathing heavily.
“No, you can’t silence me because you are annoyed. I’m stressed, too. I’m tired and I have an entire board of directors waiting for me tomorrow. So the least you can do is—”
The car jerked slightly and Luciano shifted in his seat before turning to face me fully.
“Do you ever hear yourself?” he asked, voice quiet… too quiet.
His annoyance wasn’t loud. It was collected, collected, and oh, dangerous.
“I am taking you somewhere important,” he said. “Somewhere you need to be.”
“That tells me absolutely nothing,” I frowned. “Important how? Business? Personal? The Mafia nonsense? Is someone getting killed? Are we getting killed?”
“Don’t tempt me.”
He dragged a hand over his jaw and inhaled slowly like he was seconds away from tossing me out of the moving car.
“Luciano, I’m not a child. Tell me where…”
“You will see when we get there.”
I exhaled sharply. “You are impossible.”
“And you talk too damn much.”
Gabriel coughed from the front seat beside Viktor, sounding like he was fighting for his life not to laugh.
I shot him a glare through the rearview mirror.
Traitor.
“Look,” I tried again, lowering my voice. “I am not trying to fight you. Just… let me prepare, okay? Mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Because every time you say we are going somewhere, something insane happens.”
Luciano’s lip twitched with what seemed like a smile but it wasn’t close.
“Relax.”
He leaned back in his seat.
“You will live.”
“That sentence has never comforted me. Ever.”
The car slowed as we approached a gated entrance guarded by two men dressed in black.
They bowed immediately when they saw whose car it was and their stomach tightened.
“This is not home,” I stated the obvious.
“No,” he replied.
“This is where the truth starts.”
The car rolled to a slow stop, the gravel beneath the tires crunching like bones being ground.
Luciano didn’t say a word as he stepped out, the door slamming shut with that familiar finality that always made my chest tighten.
I followed, hugging my arms as the cold wind slapped my face.
We were in front of a massive, windowless building with metal walls, rust eating at the corners, and tall floodlights casting harsh white beams across the empty compound.
A warehouse. A very dangerous looking warehouse, by the way.
Luciano walked ahead, Viktor falling into step beside him, both of them moving with the kind of silent confidence that came from being feared.
I jogged slightly to keep up, with Gabriel beside me.
The huge sliding door rolled open from the inside, pulled by two muscled men in black and they dipped their heads immediately.
“Boss.”
Their voices echoed inside the cavernous space.
The warehouse was huge, colder inside than out, the air smelling of steel, oil, and something metallic that made my stomach twist. Dim lights hung from steel beams above, casting shadows on everything. The crates, chains, metal tables, and things I didn’t want to look too closely at.
Luciano stepped forward and everyone bowed while I hovered behind him, feeling like a deflated balloon in a room filled with wolves.
We walked toward the center, where a metal staircase led upward not to a full second floor, but to a raised steel platform that overlooked the entire warehouse. Almost like a balcony meant for observing… whatever happened below.
Luciano motioned with his chin.
“Up.”
I swallowed and climbed after him.
From the platform, the whole place stretched out beneath us like a scene from a horror movie.
And that was when my eyes landed on him.
A man.
He was tied to a metal chair, his arms bound behind him and his head hanging to one side, blood matting his hair.
A single overhead bulb shone directly on him, making him the centerpiece of this nightmare.
My breath caught but Luciano didn’t flinch.
He didn’t even blink. He just stood beside me like this was some Netflix documentary.
Viktor walked across the floor, his boots echoing as he approached the man.
I gripped the railing tightly. “What… what is this?” I whispered.
Luciano’s voice was smooth, steady, and deadly calm as his lips hovered over my ear,
“This, sunshine, is where lies come to die.”
“W… what?”
I hiccuped.